Laura Dern is some of the celebrated actresses of all time. Except for uncredited roles within the early 70s, she began often acting in 1980, and she or he’s appeared in a wide-range of critically-acclaimed movies and popular blockbusters, notably early hits like Blue Velvet in 1986 and Jurassic Park in 1993. While Laura has been a beloved star for many years, she actually has many relations who’ve been within the entertainment industry in various forms. Her parents, Bruce Dern and Diane Ladd, each worked as actors, and she or he also has relatives who’ve been in politics, very successful businesspeople, and writers. All three actors have stars on the Hollywood Walk Of Fame close by one another.
Laura, who herself is a mother of two, has spoken about how completely satisfied she was that her parents were each entertainers in a 2014 interview with The Guardian. “My parents, Dianne Ladd and Bruce Dern, are so real; they’re so who they’re. The 70s, after I was a baby, was their time of great success. But there have been no cameras following you thru the market or paparazzi at your school,” she said. “They desired to play complicated people they usually didn’t care about the rest, just like the glam stuff.”
Unfortunately, Diane died on November 3, 2025. Discover more about each of Laura’s parents here.
Bruce Dern
Laura’s dad was married once before he went out with Diane. Bruce was briefly wed to Marie Dawn Pierce from 1957 to 1959, before marrying Diane in 1960. The pair’s first daughter died at 18 months old. By the point Laura was born in 1967, he was a longtime actor, with roles in a wide range of TV shows, like Stoney Burke, where he appeared in 17 episodes. He had also done some movie work, including in movies like Wild River and Hush… Hush, Sweet Charlotte.
Because the 60s, Bruce has appeared in a big selection of flicks where he’s been critically acclaimed, including 1974’s The Great Gatsby, which earned him a Golden Globe nomination. His performances in 1978’s Coming Home and 2013’s Nebraska earned him each Golden Globe and Oscar nominations. Bruce and Diana divorced in 1969 and remarried Andrea Beckett that very same yr!
Laura has opened up about getting closer along with her dad as she’s gotten older. She revealed that when she was younger, she felt like her dad was a bit unsure as a parent in a 2013 interview with Marc Maron on the WTF podcast. “I believe he type of — as you might imagine — didn’t really know what to do with a small person,” she explained. She also joked about how a playdate’s dad confronted her over a personality her dad played who killed John Wayne in a 2013 Vulture interview.
Awkward playdates aside, she did reveal what she learned from her dad in that interview. “To remain true to what’s best for you. Stay true to your individual voice, and don’t worry about needing to be liked or what anybody else thinks. Keep your eyes on your individual paper,” she said of what she picked up on as an actress.
Diane Ladd
Like Bruce, Diane had also established herself as an actress with a wide range of film and TV roles within the late Nineteen Fifties and 60s before Laura was born. Over time, Diane has appeared in plenty of hit movies like Chinatown (1974) and National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation (1989), and she or he’s received Oscar nominations for roles in Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore (1974), Wild Heart (1990), and Rambling Rose (1991).
While Diane has been open about how she initially discouraged Laura from pursuing a profession in acting, Laura’s first two uncredited roles were in her mom’s movies Alice and 1973’s White Lightning. Regardless that Laura spent a number of time along with her dad as a child, the actress did explain that her mom was the first caregiver within the WTF interview. “I definitely was raised by my mom and my grandma,” she said. After Diane and Bruce split, she remarried William Shea from 1969 to 1976 and Robert Hunter in 1999.
The mom-and-daughter pair co-starred within the TV series Enlightened, which ran from 2011 to 2013. Laura said that some people didn’t realize that they weren’t only a mother and daughter on TV but in real life too. “I even have had so many individuals come as much as me, not likely knowing we’re mother and daughter, and it’s amazing that there are people who find themselves fans of the show who don’t know and get such a kick out of the connection,” she said in a CBS News interview.
Each actresses appeared in plenty of different projects together, including Rambling Rose, Wild At Heart, and Citizen Ruth. Similarly, Diane was ecstatic to get to work alongside her daughter on the show. “To work with someone you’re keen on is an important thing,” she told CBS News.
Laura announced on November 3, 2025, that Diane died on the age of 89.
“My amazing hero and my profound gift of a mother, Diane Ladd, passed with me beside her this morning, at her home in Ojai, California,” Laura wrote in an announcement obtained by The Hollywood Reporter. “She was the best daughter, mother, grandmother, actress, artist and empathetic spirit that only dreams could have seemingly created. We were blessed to have her. She is flying along with her angels now.”